MITSUGIRLY has a JEWEL of a time on my 1st RC cruise in years!

[mitsugirly]

Day 7: Sea Day

 

No alarm day...and I'm up at 7:30am. What the heck! I guess my body has adjusted to this new schedule and I just couldn't go back to sleep. I headed up to the buffet for my morning caffeine and yes, they were open since it was after 7am. Then back down to the room and I decided I would do both assignments for school that were due today and get that out of the way.

 

The fam squad was finally awake and we headed to the buffet where we would meet up with Kia for breakfast.

 

I had my usual HOWEVER....

 

 

Notice there was something missing from my plate? The eggs....

 

WELL...here it is, the last day of the cruise, and I just discovered that you can go on the OPPOSITE side from where we normally ate (you know, the side that has the hash browns instead of potatoes) and order an actual omelette the way YOU want it. Ugh! I've missed this all week. BUT, it's different than NCL or Carnival. They have a sheet you fill out with everything you want on it and you hand it to a lady standing there and she gives it to the cooks.

 

They give you one of these....

 

 

Then you are on your merry way to go get the rest of your food.

 

So the hubby was 3 people behind me in line. We sat down to eat and what do you think happened? His buzzer went off before mine. What the heck? I went up after he came back with his omelette. I mean I figured I'd give them at least that amount of time to make mine ring, but it never happened. Once I got up there, they checked with the cook and yep it was ready, but my buzzer never buzzed!

 

I think I had a bit of a sweet tooth that morning.

 

 

 

After breakfast, Sakari went off to play with other munchkins her size and we walked around the ship taking pictures.

 

 

We went back and picked up Sakari and headed to the room to do a little packing. I love when the last day is a sea day and you can pack a little throughout the day and not feel rushed.

 

Around 1pm, we decided to try out the MDR for lunch since we hadn't done that yet. I know on other cruise lines, we have been pleasantly surprised by the offerings and enjoyed it there.

 

Sakari decided to bring her drawing book with her to work on some drawings. (This is normally what she does at home...everywhere we go, she brings her book).

 

 

Her face painting was looking mighty chic this morning and smudged down the side of her face.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I honestly didn't see much that was too appealing to "me". But, decided I would try out the chicken sliders on the menu.

 

While I was waiting, they had a very impressive salad bar. You told someone everything you wanted and they put it in a huge mixing bowel. When you got to the end, they used a pizza cutter (I've never thought of doing this before) to chop and slice everything up. Pretty cool and it was pretty good!

 

 

 

 

The "chicken" sliders came. Hmmm....Ok, I really don't know how to describe these. I really don't think they were chicken. They reminded me of some type of fake meet burger, but only chicken I guess. I can't even describe the taste OR the texture. I'm sorry...it was just nasty to me. I took one bite and just couldn't do it. The fries were good though and I really enjoyed my salad and the rolls and it was good enough for me.

 

 

After lunch we headed to the photo area to pick out the rest of our pictures and try to limit them down some. The ONLY reason I buy these things are for my scrapbook and memories for Sakari for once I'm gone. Otherwise, I'd never buy them because we all know I take enough pictures!

 

So pricing....

 

8x10 was 19.99

5x7 was 14.99

 

6 pictures for $99

10 pictures for $149

20 pictures for $199 (I think). .

ALL pictures for $249

 

I ended up with a deal for 10 pictures AND it included a free photobook...which I have no idea what I'll do with. It actually made the package cheaper for some reason. I had to buy the book and got pictures for free or something like that.

 

 

 

No the sand all over the book did not come with it. That sand could have came from Bermuda for all I know. My suitcases seem to be loaded with it and no matter how much you flip and turn it when you get home...there's no getting it all out.

 

And btw, it's not fun dealing with buying pictures on the last day of the cruise. It was a mad house (even during the day) and just not enough help. There were only 2 people and 2 registers open. It was crazy and very slow. However, if you are someone that buys a picture from ever port...remember how I said they don't get the pictures out the same day and you have to wait until the following day? Yea, RC could use some improvement here.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Oh, they also gave me a coupon for shutterfly.

 

 

We headed off to do a little bit of shopping. I had to get a tee shirt from the ship and Sakari always collects these ship ornaments.

 

 

Back to the room to do a little more packing and then Sakari wanted to swim some. When we arrived up to the pool deck, they had just drained the pool. Accident? I don't know but I just heard someone say they had a volleyball tournament...which has nothing to do with needing to drain the pool, but that's what the word on the street was.

 

After the pool was filled, Sakari swam and then got in the hot tub, rinse and repeat. I just hung out with Kia and we chatted the rest of the day.

 

The live band was playing and he was actually singing all the line dance songs!!! I was impressed. Any other ship I have been on only played them by using a recording of the song. Everyone was up and dancing...even the guys.

 

[YOUTUBE]DW-FsORMgYE[/YOUTUBE]

 

and another

 

[YOUTUBE]vghT9_psJBo[/YOUTUBE]

 

Then there was a VERY small kid and I watched his dad go up to the band and before long this kid was in front of the mic and playing his guitar and singing. It was so adorable and he was so good.

 

We decided to give the theater another try because we heard that there would be a comedian that night AND the RC singers and dancers....oh my. The comedian was from Ohio and he was funny, so it was a decent show minus the off beat singers and dancers. But hey, it was some entertainment that I felt like this ship was missing out on.

 

 

After the show we decided to head to dinner at the MDR. Kia said she had reservations, so she walked in on one side and we went to the other. This would be the first time we had an actual wait. It wasn't long. Maybe 10 minutes or less.

 

What do ya know...they were sitting us at the same table with the same waiter. But, we seen Kia walk in with Michaela and she told us to see if the waiter would let us all sit together...and he did.

 

 

I started out with the yummy french onion soup.

 

 

The hubs had a lettuce wedge. LOL...what the heck? Someone in the back needed that pizza cutter from earlier today.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Kia had the Salmon Tartare. I can't do salmon and I tried caviar once and it's just not my cup of tea...or food.

 

My main consisted of Garlic Tiger Shrimps

 

 

Possibly the Chicken Parmigiana? I don't remember but I see Sakari's hand there so it must have been her plate.

 

 

Hubs had the Roasted Rack of Lamb

 

 

Then we started hearing music and all the waiters dropped what they were doing and here they came...singing and dancing. I didn't realize that RC did this.

 

 

I had ask for a pop prior to this and don't you know that our waiter was signing and dancing down the line and had my pop in his hand to deliver it to me as he went by? Like they don't leave you hanging...ever. This had to be the best service at any MDR that I think I had ever had on any ship. Seriously!

 

 

 

Here they are signing and dancing. (video)

 

[YOUTUBE]eaLvpTWnodk[/YOUTUBE]

 

[mitsugirly]

Desert time!!!

 

A cookie fit for a queen.

 

 

 

It was getting late and I knew I had to finish up some last minute packing and get my luggage out. The last thing I wanted to do was lug around our luggage in the morning...especially mine with only 3 wheels.

 

Those dreaded papers were in the room giving us directions on how to get the heck off of the ship.

 

 

 

I think I fell into some form of depression after putting my luggage out for the night and I really didn't want to face having to be booted from the ship the following morning.

 

One last check to make sure that Sakari had actual clothes to wear the following day (referring back to the time I actually packed ALL of her clothes and she was about to be naked the following day getting off the ship...yea that was a fun cruise).

I checked in with Kolin to make sure the fish and Loki were still alive.

Everyone had everything they needed for the following day and we headed to bed and set the alarm.

 

[dreadpirate3]

Sakari's dinner the last night looks like chicken Marsala.

 

I have really enjoyed your review. Thanks for sharing with us.

[mitsugirly]

I had set my alarm for 7am and we were up at breakfast by 7:45am. Of course we had the normal, minus the omelette today because I didn't want to wait around for it.

 

Then I headed out to take some pictures of us in port. It was a beautiful day again.

 

 

 

 

Look at the beautiful church in the distance.

 

 

One last pic of the pool

 

 

They started calling the numbers to get off the ship. They called a bunch of them all at once (1-15) and we went down to the room and grabbed our things and walked off the ship at 8:39am. It was such an easy process and moved quickly and non-stop. It probably took maybe 5 minutes from getting in line on the ship to walking off of it.

 

We gathered our luggage and there were 2 lines to get in. They looked about the same as far as distance and one of the workers told us to "get in this line" so we did. This line moved SO fast, while the other line barely moved. Go us! I was sad that I didn't get to say goodbye to Kia and family. We hadn't seen them at breakfast or getting off.

 

It felt like we were in the line maybe 10-15 minutes tops and walked up to customs and handed him our passports. His response was "Any fruits, vegetables or anything live?" and I replied "nope" and he handed us our passports back (without even looking at them) and said "Have a nice day". Wow, the absolute quickest ever!

 

We headed outside and managed to find Kia and fam. Woo hoo! At least we'd get to say goodbye.

 

 

I hate that it would be another year before we'd see each other again and had to take a selfie.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We sat around and chatted for awhile and the kids decided to sit down and draw. Sakari is not the only one that likes to draw...Michaela likes it too and is pretty darn good at it. So, Sakari wanted her to draw her a picture of Loki for her.

 

 

 

Kia ask again how long we'd be in PR and I told her we would be leaving on Wednesday. She wasn't able to stay longer and was headed out that day. Then it was time to say our official goodbyes and we headed to the taxi line, told them where we were going, then they handed us a slip of paper and directed us to a taxi.

 

Notice they put that we had 4 luggage (they charge per luggage) and we only have 3. I thought that was odd but wasn't going to argue about it.

 

 

Along the way to our hotel.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

For some reason our drivers GPS decided to take us down a street and turn onto one of the bumpiest roads...the one's with holes and bricks as a road. It went on FOREVER! The parked cars on the side of that road made it such a tight squeeze in areas that I didn't think we'd make it. I was sure that a few side view mirrors were to be lost on this route. I'm not sure why it took us that way instead of a main road and then cut over.

 

We finally made it to our destination: Decanter Hotel

 

Now this place I had researched way ahead of time and booked it. It looked like a lovely place to stay and the pictures I had seen looked nice. (But then again, I seen the pictures of Da House and they looked nothing like what we got).

 

Look how old this place is

 

 

Here's the outside.

 

 

 

 

We checked in, but the room was not ready of course. They did store our luggage and we decided to go walking around.

 

All Sakari had talked about the entire week (and since booking this cruise out of PR) was going back to Pigeon Park. She absolutely loves birds and insisted on going. I told her we'd go there at some point this visit, but I didn't know when.

 

Now the last time we stayed in OSJ, we stayed at the Old Sheraton right by the port across the street. This time, the Decanter was located pretty much on the other side of OSJ (and when you talk about one side of OSJ versus the other side...we are only talking several blocks because it's not a big area to begin with and easily walked). I wanted a different experience this time around and to be closer to the fort so that we could make it to that area (since we didn't last time).

 

We headed out the front door and straight down the street and it dead ended into....

 

 

 

Yep, Pigeon Park! Sakari screamed with excitement.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

There's a guy there that sells the bird food for $1 a bag and there's enough in it to keep you busy for a very long time.

 

 

 

 

Daddy thought he was the bird whisperer and would coax some of the birds out of their home. What? All the birds surrounding you on the ground wasn't good enough? Well they weren't having it and stayed up in their homes.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[njmomof2]

You finally hit up the MDR for the fabulous Tutti Salad Bar! One of our absolute favorite things on the ship. It looks like the Jewel's is more like the one on Freedom, unlike the super small one they have on Anthem that is somewhat of a disappointment.

 

The chicken sliders are made from ground chicken and grilled like a hamburger. I'm sure you were thinking that they were probably going to be small fried chicken patties or something like that. We've learned to skip that one since neither of my boys like ground chicken burgers!

 

Looking forward to reading about your final days in PR.

 

Oh, and since today is National Nurses Day, a big THANK YOU to you for all that you do for your patients every day!!!!

 

ETA: Just saw the pictures from Pigeon Park. It's obvious that Sakari is a bird whisperer too, but I have to say, having grown up in NYC with lots and lots of pigeons, this one is something I'd be fine missing. To me, pigeons are gross, dirty birds and I just hate them. I'm glad she enjoys them and it appears that they really liked her too. But for me, nope!

[mitsugirly]

 

 

There's a beautiful view from up here.

 

 

 

 

The actual name of the park is Parque De las Palomas. It's located next to Capilla del Cristo at the end of Cristo Street. This is a decent sized park with several shade trees, which make it nice. The trees are very interesting too and they twist and turn. There's several park benches and some walls to sit on...but beware, you won't be able to sit on the ones around the pigeons and I'm sure you can guess why. There is an area, within the park, that says "no feeding the pigeons beyond this point" and there's benches over there too.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

The Capilla del Cristo Chapel was not open at the time we were here. I'm not sure why.

 

 

It was time to head out and keep exploring. Bye bye Pigeon Park...until next time.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

I told Sakari to go stand over there by the neat cat chairs and I'd take her picture. She went to go sit down and about that time I yell "nooooo it's too hooootttt" and she sat. I actually managed to snap the picture before she sprung up like a Jack in the box yelling "ooouuuccchhhh".

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

Old San Juan has some of the most beautiful buildings ever. The architecture is stunning and so many details.

 

This building had some beautiful tile work.

 

 

 

Walking the streets you will find a lot of stray cats (they say there's a lot of dogs too but I have not witnessed it the few times I have been here). There is a crisis on the island with both cats and dogs and people are constantly abandoning their animals because they can not afford to care for them. Did you know there's actually a place called "Dead Dog Beach" where people will drop the dogs off to fend for themselves until they die? One of the other problems is the animals are not getting spayed or neutered. There are organizations and people that try to help feed and care for the stray animals. You will see bowls of food all over the place when walking the streets.

 

This guy looked like he might have been stealing every cats food in the area. He was HUGE!

 

 

We had spent some time walking around the upper area of the wall and decided to head down.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

Now this was a weird creepy fountain

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

Most of the little shops weren't open yet along this main road right down from the cruise ships.

 

 

And we were on the bottom side of the wall now.

 

 

 

I think we walked on the opposite side of the street last time, so I was getting to see things I didn't see before.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I never noticed this before, but they have an outdoor workout facility for the public...although I'm not sure how anyone could stand in the heat long enough to use it let alone work out in it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Cute little area that looked like they may have bands or shows here with seating and a stage area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

San Juan definitely has a lot of statues.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

Well, we made it to the statues that we seen last time we were here...only you couldn't get to them. I had to zoom in on it to see it.

 

 

There must have been some damage from the hurricane in this area. It leads along the water way and it was an area I wanted to revisit again because there are huge trees and a lot of shade and just so pretty.

 

[mitsugirly]

At least we were able to find some banos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You don't know how bad I wanted to just jump in. I tried to be inconspicuous and sat down on the ledge, while gently letting my arm drop down and easing it into the water then bringing it up to splash my face to cool down. I almost can't believe we actually walked this route last time we were here and it was over 100 degrees out that time.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I caught a glimpse of someone, or something, looking at me. It was an all white husky. Sakari just couldn't resist herself and had to go over and say hello. They lady did not speak any English at all, but Sakari was able to show her a picture of her husky and the lady did give her the name of her dog. Husky's are loaded with fur and I can't believe they have them in such a hot place.

 

 

The trolley around Old San Juan.

 

 

 

I'm not sure if there was any hurricane damage here or not.

 

 

I happened to notice this...a trolley stop.

 

 

There are just parks all over the place to hang out at.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We were making our way back to the hotel. They had told us that the rooms would be ready by 11am.

 

Lot's of construction in this area.

 

 

It was like the entire roads around here and all the buildings were shut down and vacant.

 

 

 

 

Just installed...brand new air conditioning. You'll love the 360 view, openness of the floor plan, skylights and the smell of the fresh breeze.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We made it back to the hotel. It felt good to walk into the a/c. However, they told us that our room was not ready yet. So, we decided we would just sit in the lobby and wait. It's a very small area with only 2 chairs and a desk.

 

The room was finally ready at 12:20pm and we couldn't wait to check it out.

 

We walked in and I was pleasantly surprised at just how great it was.

 

This is the living room and what you seen when you first walk in.

 

 

To the left was a window with doors that you could open and let fresh (hot) air in.

 

 

 

The view:

 

 

I was really loving this!

 

 

To the right was a small dining table and chairs and also a desk and built in chair. This was now my official homework station.